Official group for VARC | CAT Prep 2020

[theverbalmentor]

RC Practice - Day 34  

Recently the focus of historical studies of different ethnic groups in the United States has shifted from the transformation of ethnic identity to its preservation. Whereas earlier historians argued that the ethnic identity of various immigrant groups to the United States blended to form an American national character, the new scholarship has focused on the transplantation of ethnic cultures to the United States. Fugita and O’Brien’s Japanese American Ethnicity provides an example of this recent trend; it also exemplifies a problem that is common to such scholarship.

In comparing the first three generations of Japanese Americans (the Issei, Nisei, and Sansei), Fugita and O’Brien conclude that assimilation to United States culture increased among Japanese Americans over three generations, but that a sense of ethnic community endured. Although the persistence of community is stressed by the authors, their emphasis in the book could just as easily have been on the high degree of assimilation of the Japanese American population in the late twentieth century, which Fugita and O’Brien believe is demonstrated by the high levels of education, income, and occupational mobility achieved by Japanese Americans. In addition, their data reveal that the character of the ethnic community itself changed: the integration of Sanseis into new professional communities and nonethnic voluntary associations meant at the very least that ethnic ties had to accommodate multiple and layered identities. Fugita and O’Brien themselves acknowledge that there has been a “weakening of Japanese American ethnic community life.”

Because of the social changes weakening the bonds of community, Fugita and O’Brien maintain that the community cohesion of Japanese Americans is notable not for its initial intensity but because “there remains a degree of involvement in the ethnic community surpassing that found in most other ethnic groups at similar points in their ethnic group life cycle.” This comparative difference is important to Fugita and O’Brien, and they hypothesize that the Japanese American community persisted in the face of assimilation because of a particularly strong preexisting sense of “peoplehood”. They argue that this sense of peoplehood extended beyond local and family ties.

Fugita and O’Brien have explained persistence of ethnic community by citing a preexisting sense of national consciousness that is independent of how a group adapts to United States culture. However, it is difficult to prove as Fugita and O’Brien have attempted to do that a sense of peoplehood is a distinct phenomenon. Historians should instead attempt to identify directly the factors that sustain community cohesion in generations that have adapted to United States culture and been exposed to the pluralism of American life.

1. Which one of the following best summarizes the main point of the author of the passage?

(A) Fugita and O’Brien’s study provides a comparison of the degree of involvement in ethnic community of different groups in the United States.

(B) Fugita and O’Brien’s study describes the assimilation of three generations of Japanese Americans to United States culture.

(C) Fugita and O’Brien’s study illustrates both a recent trend in historical studies of ethnic groups and a problem typical of that trend.

(D) Historical studies of ethnic preservation among Japanese Americans have done much to define the interpretive frameworks for studies of other ethnic groups

2. According to the passage, Fugita and O’Brien’s data indicate which one of the following about the Japanese American ethnic community?

(A) Community bonds have weakened primarily as a result of occupational mobility by Japanese Americans.

(B) The community is notable because it has accommodated multiple and layered identities without losing its traditional intensity.

(C) Community cohesion is similar in intensity to the community cohesion of other ethnic groups that have been in the United States for the same period of time.

(D) The nature of the community has been altered by Japanese American participation in new professional communities and nonethnic voluntary associations.

3. Which one of the following provides an example of a research study that has conclusion most analogous to that argued for by the historians mentioned in line 4?

(A) a study showing how musical forms brought from other countries have persisted in the United States

(B) a study showing the organization and function of ethnic associations in the United States

(C) a study showing how architectural styles brought from other counties have merged to form an American style

(D) a study showing how cultural traditions have been preserved for generations in American ethic neighborhoods

4. As their views are discussed in the passage, Fugita and O’Brien would be most likely to agree with which one of the following?

(A) The community cohesion of an ethnic group is not affected by the length of time it has been in the United States.

(B) An ethnic group in the United States can have a high degree of adaptation to United States culture and still sustain strong community ties.

(C) The strength of an ethnic community in the United States is primarily dependent on the strength of local and family ties.

(D) High levels of education and occupational mobility necessarily erode the community cohesion of an ethnic group in the United States.

5. According to Fugita and O’Brien, the Japanese sustained community cohesion despite all of the following, except

(A) a sense of national consciousness or peoplehood

(B) increased participation in educational and professional activities

(C) diversity of American society

(D) interaction with nonethnic organizations

6. The author of the passage quotes Fugita and O’Brien in para 2 most probably in order to

(A) point out a weakness in their hypothesis about the strength of community ties among Japanese Americans

(B) show how they support their claim about the notability of community cohesion for Japanese Americans

(C) indicate how they demonstrate the high degree of adaptation of Japanese Americans to United States culture

(D) suggest that they have inaccurately compared Japanese Americans to other ethnic groups in the United States

https://youtu.be/5AsGQMl9xis

[gsdey]

Planning for *MBA from IIMs*? Here is all that you need to materialize your dream! Join Phoenix Global Webinar on CAT 2020, know more from CAT 99+ percentilers and IIM Alumni! *Agenda:* What is CAT? Preparation Strategies How to secure an IIM Admission? #MissionIIM2020 When: *Wednesday, 10 June 6:00pm* Registration Link: https://forms.gle/Z5qzSgqBGMwgNaJU9 Reference: girija

[theverbalmentor]

RC practice - 10th June 2020  

What it means to “explain” something in science often comes down to the application of mathematics. Some thinkers hold that mathematics is a kind of language—a systematic contrivance of signs, the criteria for the authority of which are internal coherence, elegance, and depth. The application of such a highly artificial system to the physical world, they claim, results in the creation of a kind of statement about the world. Accordingly, what matters in the sciences is finding a mathematical concept that attempts, as other language does, to accurately describe the functioning of some aspect of the world.

At the center of the issue of scientific knowledge can thus be found questions about the relationship between language and what it refers to. A discussion about the role played by language in the pursuit of knowledge has been going on among linguists for several decades. The debate centers around whether language corresponds in some essential way to objects and behaviors, making knowledge a solid and reliable commodity; or, on the other hand, whether the relationship between language and things is purely a matter of agreed-upon conventions, making knowledge tenuous, relative, and inexact.

Lately the latter theory has been gaining wider acceptance. According to linguists who support this theory, the way language is used varies depending upon changes in accepted practices and theories among those who work in particular discipline. These linguists argue that, in the pursuit of knowledge, a statement is true only when there are no promising alternatives that might lead one to question it. Certainly this characterization would seem to be applicable to the sciences. In science, a mathematical statement may be taken to account for every aspect of a phenomenon it is applied to, but, some would argue, there is nothing inherent in mathematical language that guarantees such a correspondence. Under this view, acceptance of a mathematical statement by the scientific community—by virtue of the statement’s predictive power or methodological efficiency—transforms what is basically an analogy or metaphor into an explanation of the physical process in question, to be held as true until another, more compelling analogy takes its place.

In pursuing the implications of this theory, linguists have reached the point at which they must ask: If words or sentences do not correspond in an essential way to life or to our ideas about life, then just what are they capable of telling us about the world? In science and mathematics, then, it would seem equally necessary to ask: If models of electrolytes or E=mc2, say, do not correspond essentially to the physical world, then just what functions do they perform in the acquisition of scientific knowledge? But this question has yet to be significantly addressed in the sciences.

1. Which one of the following statements most accurately expresses the passage’s main point?

(A) Although scientists must rely on both language and mathematics in their pursuit of scientific knowledge, each is an imperfect tool for perceiving and interpreting aspects of the physical world.

(B) The acquisition of scientific knowledge depends on an agreement among scientists to accept some mathematical statements as more precise than others while acknowledging that all mathematics is inexact.

(C) If science is truly to progress, scientists must temporarily abandon the pursuit of new knowledge in favor of a systematic analysis of how the knowledge they already possess came to be accepted as true.

(D) In order to better understand the acquisition of scientific knowledge, scientists must investigate mathematical statements’ relationship to the world just as linguists study language’s relationship to the world.

2. Which one of the following statements, if true, lends the most support to the view that language has an essential correspondence to things it describes?

(A) The categories of physical objects employed by one language correspond remarkably to the categories employed by another language that developed independently of the first.

(B) The categories of physical objects employed by one language correspond remarkably to the categories employed by another language that derives from the first.

(C) Native speakers of many languages believe that the categories of physical objects employed by their language correspond to natural categories of objects in the world.

(D) The sentence structures of languages in scientifically sophisticated societies vary little from language to language.

3. According to the passage, mathematics can be considered a language because it

(A) conveys meaning in the same way that metaphors do

(B) constitutes a systematic collection of signs

(C) relies on previously agreed-upon conventions

(D) confers explanatory power on scientific theories

4. Based on the passage, linguists who subscribe to the theory described in para 3 would hold that the statement “the ball is red” is true because

(A) speakers of English have accepted that “the ball is red” applies to the particular physical relationship being described

(B) speakers of English do not accept that synonyms for “ball” and “red” express these concepts as elegantly

(C) “The ball is red” corresponds essentially to every aspect of the particular physical relationship being described

(D) “ball” and “red” are mathematical concepts that attempt to accurately describe some particular physical relationship in the world

5. The author’s views about science and language can best be summed up as

(A) There is incoherence between how the two describe the physical world

(B) Both of them are abstract representations of the physical world

(C) Neither is capable of providing any useful representation of the physical world

(D) Both can essentially be reduced to mathematical functions of little value

https://youtu.be/4BILG3nVbhA

[theverbalmentor]

RC Practice - 11th June 2020  

Many people complain about corporations, but there are also those whose criticism goes further and who hold corporations morally to blame for many of the problems in Western society. Their criticism is not reserved solely for fraudulent or illegal business activities, but extends to the basic corporate practice of making decisions based on what will maximize profits without regard to whether such decisions will contribute to the public good. Others, mainly economists, have responded that this criticism is flawed because it inappropriately applies ethical principles to economic relationships.

It is only by extension that we attribute the quality of morality to corporations, for corporations are not persons. Corporate responsibility is an aggregation of the responsibilities of those persons employed by the corporation when they act in and on behalf of the corporation. Some corporations are owner operated, but in many corporations and in most larger ones there is a syndicate of owners to whom the chief executive officer, or CEO, who runs the corporation is said to have a fiduciary obligation.

The economists argue that a CEO’s sole responsibility is to the owners, whose primary interest, except in charitable institutions, is the protection of their profits. CEOs are bound, as a condition of their employment, to seek a profit for the owners. But suppose a noncharitable organization is owner operated, or, for some other reason, its CEO is not obligated to maximize profits. The economists’ view is that even if such a CEO’s purpose is to look to the public good and nothing else, the CEO should still work to maximize profits, because that will turn out best for the public anyway.

But the economists’ position does not hold up (to continue in the same condition without failing or losing effectiveness or force “you seem to be holding up under the strain”) under careful scrutiny. For one thing, although there are, no doubt, strong underlying dynamics in national and international economies that tend to make the pursuit of corporate interest contribute to the public good, there is no guarantee—either theoretically or in practice—that a given CEO will benefit the public by maximizing corporate profit. It is absurd to deny the possibility, say, of a paper mill legally maximizing its profits over a five-year period by decimating a forest for its wood or polluting a lake with its industrial waste. Furthermore, while obligations such as those of corporate CEOs to corporate owners are binding in a business or legal sense, they are not morally paramount. The CEO could make a case to the owners that certain profitable courses of action should not be taken because they are likely to detract (to diminish the importance, value, or effectiveness of something; often used with from) from the public good. The economic consequences that may befall the CEO for doing so, such as penalty or dismissal, ultimately do not excuse the individual from the responsibility for acting morally.

1. Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of the passage?

(A) Although CEOs may be legally obligated to maximize their corporations’ profits, this obligation does not free them from the moral responsibility of considering the implications of the corporations’ actions for the public good.

(B) Although morality is not easily ascribed to nonhuman entities, corporations can be said to have an obligation to act morally in the sense that they are made up of individuals who must act morally.

(C) Although economists argue that maximizing a corporation’s profits is likely to turn out best for the public, a CEO’s true obligations is still to seek a profit for the corporation’s owners.

(D) Although some people criticize corporations for making unethical decisions, economists argue that such criticisms are unfounded because ethical considerations cannot be applied to economics.

2. The discussion of the paper mill in the last paragraph is intended primarily to

(A) offer an actual case of unethical corporate behavior

(B) refute the contention that maximization of profits necessarily benefits the public

(C) illustrate that ethical restrictions on corporations would be difficult to enforce

(D) demonstrate that corporations are responsible for many social ills.

3. With which one of the following would the economists mentioned in the passage be most likely to agree?

(A) Even CEOs of charitable organizations are obligated to maximize profits.

(B) CEOs of owner-operated noncharitable corporations should make decisions based primarily on maximizing profits.

(C) Owner-operated noncharitable corporations are less likely to be profitable than other corporations.

(D) It is highly unlikely that the actions of any particular CEO will benefit the public.

4. The conception of morality that underlies the author’s argument in the passage is best expressed by which one of the following principles?

(A) What makes actions morally right is their contribution to the public good.

(B) An action is morally right if it carries the risk of personal penalty.

(C) Actions are morally right if they are not fraudulent or illegal.

(D) It is morally wrong to try to maximize one’s personal benefit

5. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) illustrate a paradox

(B) argue for legal reform

(C) refute a claim

(D) explain a decision

[theverbalmentor]

RC Practice - 12th June 2020

Many birds that form flocks compete through aggressive interaction for priority of access to resources such as food and shelter. The result of repeated interactions between flock members is that each bird gains a particular social status related to its fighting ability, with priority of access to resources increasing with higher status. As the number and intensity of interactions between birds increase, however, so increase the costs to each bird in terms of energy expenditure, time, and risk of injury. Thus, birds possessing attributes that reduce the number of costly interactions in which they must be involved, without leading to a reduction in status, are at an advantage. An external signal, such as a plumage type, announcing fighting ability and thereby obviating the actual need to fight, could be one such attribute.

The zoologist Rohwer asserted that plumage variations in “Harris sparrows” support the status signaling hypothesis (SSH). He reported that almost without exception birds with darker throats win conflicts with individuals having lighter plumage. He claimed that even among birds of the same age and sex the amount of dark plumage predicts relative dominance status.

However, Rohwer’s data do not support his assertions: in one of his studies darker birds won only 57 out of 75 conflicts; within another, focusing on conflicts between birds of the same age group or sex, darker birds won 63 and lost 62. There are indications that plumage probably does signal broad age-related differences in status among Harris sparrows: adults, usually dark throated, have higher status than juveniles, who are usually light throated; moreover, juveniles dyed to resemble adults are dominant over undyed juveniles. However, the Harris sparrows’ age-related plumage differences do not signal the status of individual birds within an age class, and thus cannot properly be included under the term “status signaling.”

The best evidence for status signaling is from the greater titmouse. Experiments show a strong correlation between the width of the black breast-plumage stripe and status as measured by success in aggressive interactions. An analysis of factors likely to be associated with breast-stripe width (sex, age, wing length, body weight) has demonstrated social status to be the only variable that correlates with stripe width when the other variables are held constant.

An ingenious experiment provided further evidence for status signaling in the greater titmouse. One of three stuffed titmouse dummies was mounted on a feeding tray. When a live bird approached, the dummy was turned by radio control to face the bird and present its breast stripe in “display”. When presented with a dummy having a narrower breast stripe than their own, birds approached closely and behaved aggressively. However, when presented with a dummy having a broader breast stripe than their own, live birds acted submissive and did not approach.

1. According to the passage, the status signaling hypothesis holds that the ability to display a recognizable external signal would have the effect on an individual bird of

(A) enabling it to attract a mate of high status

(B) allowing it to avoid costly aggressive interactions

(C) decreasing its access to limited resources

(D) making it less attractive to predatory species

2. The author refers to the fact that adult Harris sparrows are usually dark throated, in order to do which one of the following?

(A) support the conclusion that plumage variation among Harris sparrows probably does not signal individual status

(B) argue that plumage variation among Harris sparrows helps to confirm the status signaling hypothesis

(C) indicate that in light of plumage variation patterns among Harris sparrows, the status signaling hypothesis should probably be modified

(D) demonstrate that Harris sparrows are the most appropriate subjects for the study of status signaling among birds

3. Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously undermine the validity of the results of the experiment discussed in the last paragraph?

(A) The live birds all came from different titmouse flocks.

(B) The physical characteristics of the stuffed dummies varied in ways other than just breast-stripe width.

(C) No live juvenile birds were included in the experiment.

(D) The food placed in the feeding tray was not the kind of food normally eaten by titmice in the wild

4. Which one of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

(A) A hypothesis is introduced and studies relevant to the hypothesis are discussed and evaluated.

(B) A natural phenomenon is presented and several explanations for the phenomenon are examined in detail.

(C) Behavior is described, possible underlying causes for the behavior are reported, and the likelihood of each cause is assessed.

(D) A scientific conundrum is explained and the history of the issue is recounted.

5. According to the passage, which one of the following true of Rohwer’s relationship to the status signaling hypothesis (SSH)?

(A) Although his research was designed to test the SSH, his data proved to be more relevant to other issues.

(B) He advocated the SSH, but his research data failed to confirm it.

(C) He set out to disprove the SSH, but ended up accepting it.

(D) He altered the SSH by expanding it to encompass various types of signals.

6. Which one of the following can be inferred about Harris sparrows from the passage?

(A) Among Harris sparrows, plumage differences signal individual status only within age groups.

(B) Among Harris sparrows, adults have priority of access to food over juveniles.

(C) Among Harris sparrows, juveniles with relatively dark plumage have status equal to that of adults with relatively light plumage.

(D) Juvenile Harris sparrows engage in aggressive interaction more frequently than do adult Harris sparrows

[prince_2798]

Hi guys can anyone help me to understand what is the argument author is talking about.

One of the founding axioms of linguisc theory, arculated by Ferdinand de

Saussure in the early 19 century, is that any parcular linguisc sign – a

sound, a mark on the page, a gesture – is arbitrary, and dictated solely by

social convenon. Save those rare excepons such as onomatopoeias,

where a word mimics a noise – e.g., ‘cuckoo’, ‘achoo’ or ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’

– there should be no inherent link between the way a word sounds and the

concept it represents; unless we have been socialised to think

so, nurunuru shouldn’t feel more ‘slimy’ any more than it feels ‘dry’.

Yet many world languages contain a separate set of words that defies this

principle. Known as ideophones, they are considered to be especially vivid

and evocave of sensual experiences. Crucially, you do not need to know

the language to grasp a hint of their meaning. Studies show that

parcipants lacking any prior knowledge of Japanese, for example, oen

guess the meanings of ideophones beer than chance alone would allow.

For many people, nurunuru really does feel ‘slimy’; wakuwaku evokes

excitement, and kurukuru conjures visions of circular rather than vercal

moon. That should simply not be possible, if the sound-meaning

relaonship was indeed arbitrary.

How and why do ideophones do this? Despite their prevalence in many

languages, ideophones were once considered linguisc oddies of marginal

interest. As a consequence, linguists, psychologists and neurosciensts have

only recently started to unlock their secrets. Their results pose a profound

challenge to the foundaons of Saussurean linguiscs. According to this

research, language isembodied: a process that involves subtle feedback, for

both listener and speaker, between the sound of a word, the vocal

apparatus and our own experience of human physicality. Taken together,

this dynamic helps to create a connecon between certain sounds and their

aendant meanings. These associaons appear to be universal across all

human sociees.

This understanding of language as an embodied process can illuminate the

marvel of language acquision during infancy. It might even cast light on

the evoluonary origins of language itself – potenally represenng a kind

of ‘proto-world’, a vesge of our ancestors’ first uerances.

How should we define an ideophone? All languages contain powerfully

emove or sensual words, aer all. But ideophones share a couple of

characteriscs that make them unique. For one, they constute their own

unique class, marked with their own linguisc rules – in the same way that,

say, nouns or verbs also follow their own rules in how they are formed and

used. In Japanese, for instance, ideophones are easy to recognise because

they most oen take the form of a two-syllable root that is then repeated –

such asgochagocha (messy),nurunuru (slimy) ortsurutsuru (smooth)

Q1) Which of the following, if true, would weaken the author’s

argument?

  1) An ideophone is a fully fledged word type that integrates sensory

      experiences and language.

   2) The Ewe word ?abo?abo, translates as ‘duck’; which evokes an

       uneven walk, and its sounds are accompanied by an exaggerated

       waddling moon.

  3)  The evocave power of ideophones might be a reflecon of an

        inherent sound symbolism understood by all humans.

  4)   Every language has a definite number of sounds and rules for their

        combinaon to form different words.

[ritwikrao]

 A tricky and confusing RC Snippet:

Some environmentalists question the prudence of exploiting features of the environment, arguing that there are no economic benefits to be gained from forests, mountains, or wetlands that no longer exist. Many environmentalists claim that because nature has intrinsic value it would be wrong to destroy such features of the environment, even if the economic costs of doing so were outweighed by the economic costs of not doing so. 

Which one of the following can be logically inferred from the passage? 

(A) It is economically imprudent to exploit features of the environment. 

(B) Some environmentalists appeal to a non economic justification in questioning the defensibility of exploiting features of the environment. 

(C) Most environmentalists appeal to economic reasons in questioning the defensibility of exploiting features of the environment. 

(D) Many environmentalists provide only a non economic justification in questioning the defensibility of exploiting features of the environment. 

(E) Even if there is no economic reason for protecting the environment, there is a sound non economic justification for doing so. 

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer. The second sentence references the views of many environmentalists, who claim that "nature has intrinsic value" (for example, beauty). This view is the non economic justification cited by the answer choice. 

This answer can be a bit tricky because of the convoluted language the test makers use. "Questioning the defensibility of exploiting features of the environment" is a needlessly complex phrase. A more direct manner of writing that phrase would be "attacking the exploitation of the environment." 

My question here is that option B starts with some environmentalists but the second line in the passage states many environmentalists... Some can never be translated to many, yet how come they have concluded that this is the right one? Another thought that I have is that the option states some environmentalists appeal to ... because the word appeal and defensibility is there, is option B actually reffering to the environmentalists from the first line of the passage? 

Kindly advice. TIA. Cheers.

[theverbalmentor]

RC Practice - 15th June 2020 | Sociology | Moderate 

Two impressive studies have reexamined Eric Williams’ conclusion that Britain’s abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and its emancipation of slavers in its colonies in 1834 were driven primarily by economic rather than humanitarian motives. Blighted by depleted soil, indebtedness, and the inefficiency of coerced labor, these colonies, according to Williams, had by 1807 become an impediment to British economic progress.

Seymour Drescher provides a more balanced view. Rejecting interpretations based either on economic interest or the moral vision of abolitionists, Drescher has reconstructed the populist characteristics of British abolitionism, which appears to have cut across lines of class, party, and religion. Noting that between 1780 and 1830 antislavery petitions outnumbered those on any other issue, including parliamentary reform, Drescher concludes that such support cannot be explained by economic interest alone, especially when much of it came from the unenfranchised masses. Yet, aside from demonstrating that such support must have resulted at least in part from widespread literacy and a tradition of political activism, Drescher does not finally explain how England, a nation deeply divided by class struggles, could mobilize popular support for antislavery measures proposed by otherwise conservative politicians in the House of Lords and approved there with little dissent.

David Eltis’ answer to that question actually supports some of Williams’ insights. Eschewing Drescher’ s idealization of British traditions of liberty, Eltis points to continuing use of low wages and Draconian vagrancy laws in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to ensure the industriousness of British workers. Indeed, certain notables even called for the enslavement of unemployed laborers who roamed the British countryside—an acceptance of coerced labor that Eltis attributes to a preindustrial desire to keep labor costs low and exports competitive. By the late eighteenth century, however, a growing home market began to alert capitalists to the importance of “want creation” and to incentives such as higher wages as a means of increasing both worker productivity and the number of consumers.

Significantly, it was products grown by slaves, such as sugar, coffee, and tobacco, that stimulated new wants at all levels of British society and were the forerunners of products intended in modern capitalist societies to satisfy what Eltis describes as “nonsubsistence or psychological needs.” Eltis concludes that in economy that had begun to rely on voluntary labor to satisfy such needs, forced labor necessarily began to appear both inappropriate and counterproductive to employers. Eltis thus concludes that, while Williams may well have underestimated the economic viability of the British colonies employing forced labor in the early 1800s, his insight into the economic motives for abolition was partly accurate. British leaders became committed to colonial labor reform only when they became convinced, for reasons other than those cited by Williams, that free labor was more beneficial to the imperial economy.

1. Which one of the following best describes the main idea of the passage?

(A) Although they disagree about the degree to which economic motives influenced Britain’s abolition of slavery, Drescher and Eltis both concede that moral persuasion by abolitionists was a significant factor.

(B) Although both Drescher and Eltis have questioned Williams’ analysis of the motivation behind Britain’s abolition of slavery, there is support for part of Williams’ conclusion.

(C) Because he has taken into account the populist characteristics of British abolitionism, Drescher’s explanation of what motivated Britain’s abolition of slavery is finally more persuasive than that of Eltis.

(D) Neither Eltis nor Drescher has succeeded in explaining why support for Britain’s abolition of slavery appears to have cut across lines of party, class, and religion

2. Which one of the following best states Williams’ view of the primary reason for Britain’s abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of slaves in its colonies?

(A) British populism appealed to people of varied classes, parties, and religions.

(B) Both capitalists and workers in Britain accepted the moral precepts of abolitionists.

(C) Forced labor in the colonies could not produce enough goods to satisfy British consumers.

(D) The operation of colonies based on forced labor was no longer economically advantageous.

3. According to Eltis, low wages and Draconian vagrancy laws in Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were intended to

(A) protect laborers against unscrupulous employment practices

(B) counter the move to enslave unemployed laborers

(C) ensure a cheap and productive work force

(D) ensure that the work force experienced no unemployment

4. It can be inferred that the author of the passage views Drescher’s presentation of British traditions concerning liberty as

(A) accurately stated

(B) somewhat unrealistic

(C) carefully researched

(D) unnecessarily tentative

5. The information in the passage suggests that Eltis and Drescher agree that

(A) people of all classes in Britain supported the abolition of slavery

(B) the motives behind Britain’s abolition of slavery were primarily economic

(C) the moral vision of abolitionists played a vital part in Britain’s abolition of slavery

(D) British traditions of liberty have been idealized by historians

6. According to the passage, Eltis argues against which one of the following contentions?

(A) Popular support for antislavery measures existed in Britain in the early nineteenth century.

(B) In the early nineteenth century, colonies that employed forced labor were still economically viable.

(C) British views concerning personal liberty motivated nineteenth-century British opposition to slavery.

(D) Widespread literacy in Britain contributed to public opposition to slavery in the early nineteenth century.

https://youtu.be/XUGZZlS3tP0

[theverbalmentor]

RC Practice - 16th June 2020 | Ecology | Moderate

When the same habitat types (forests, oceans, grasslands etc.) in regions of different latitudes are compared, it becomes apparent that the overall number of species increases from pole to equator. This latitudinal gradient is probably even more pronounced than current records indicate, since researchers believe that most undiscovered species live in the tropics.

One hypothesis to explain this phenomenon, the “time theory” holds that diverse species adapted to today’s climatic conditions have had more time to emerge in the tropical regions, which, unlike the temperate and arctic zones, have been unaffected by a succession of ice ages. However, ice ages have caused less disruption in some temperate regions than in others and have not interrupted arctic conditions.

Alternatively, the species-energy hypothesis proposes the following positive correlations: incoming energy from the Sun correlated with rates of growth and reproduction; rates of growth and reproduction with the amount of living matter (biomass) at a given moment; and the amount of biomass with number of species. However, since organisms may die rapidly, high production rates can exist with low biomass. And high biomass can exist with few species. Moreover, the mechanism proposed—greater energy influx leading to bigger populations, thereby lowering the probability of local extinction—remains untested.

A third hypothesis centers on the tropics’ climatic stability, which provides a more reliable supply of resources. Species can thus survive even with few types of food, and competing species can tolerate greater overlap between their respective niches. Both capabilities enable more species to exist on the same resources. However, the ecology of local communities cannot account for the origin of the latitudinal gradient. Localized ecological processes such as competition do not generate regional pools of species, and it is the total number of species available regionally for colonizing any particular area that makes the difference between, for example, a forest at the equator and one at higher latitude.

A fourth and most plausible hypothesis focuses on regional speciation, and in particular on rates of speciation and extinction. According to this hypothesis, if speciation rates become higher toward the tropics, and are not negated by extinction rates, then the latitudinal gradient would result—and become increasingly steep.

The mechanism for this rate-of-speciation hypothesis is that most new animal species, and perhaps plant species, arise because a population subgroup becomes isolated. This subgroup evolves differently and eventually cannot interbreed with members of the original population. The uneven spread of a species over a large geographic area promotes this mechanism: at the edges, small populations spread out and form isolated groups. Since subgroups in an arctic environment are more likely to face extinction than those in the tropics, the latter are more likely to survive long enough to adapt to local conditions and ultimately become new species.

1. Which one of the following most accurately expressed the main idea of the passage?

(A) At present, no single hypothesis explaining the latitudinal gradient in numbers of species is more widely accepted than any other.

(B) The tropical climate is more conductive to promoting species diversity than are arctic or temperate climates.

(C) Several explanations have been suggested for global patterns in species distribution, but a hypothesis involving rates of speciation seems most promising.

(D) Despite their differences, the various hypotheses regarding a latitudinal gradient in species diversity concur in prediction that the gradient can be expected to increase

2. Which one of the following situations is most consistent with the species-energy hypothesis as described in the passage?

(A) The many plants in a large agricultural tract represent a limited range of species.

(B) An animal species experiences a death rate almost as rapid as its rate of growth and reproduction.

(C) Within the small number of living organisms in a desert habitat, many different species are represented.

(D) In an arctic tundra, the plants and animals exhibit a slow rate of growth and reproduction.

3. As presented in the passage, the principles of the time theory most strongly support which one of the following predictions?

(A) In the absence of additional ice ages, the number of species at high latitudes could eventually increase significantly.

(B) No future ice ages are likely to change the climatic conditions that currently characterize temperate regions.

(C) If no further ice ages occur, climatic conditions at high latitudes might eventually resemble those at today’s tropical latitudes.

(D) Researchers will continue to find many more new species in the tropics than in the arctic and temperate zones.

4. Which one of the following, if true, most clearly weakens the rate-of-speciation hypothesis as it is described in the passage?

(A) A remote subgroup of a tropical species is reunited with the original population and proves unable to interbreed with members of this original population.

(B) Investigation of a small area of a tropical rain forest reveals that many competing species are able to coexist on the same range of resources.

(C) A correlation between higher energy influx, larger populations and lower probability of local extinction is definitively established.

(D) Most of the isolated subgroups of mammalian life within a tropical zone are found to experience rapid extinction.

5. Which one of the following inferences about the biological characteristics of a temperate-zone grassland is most strongly supported by the passage?

(A) It has more different species than does a tropical-zone forest.

(B) Its climatic conditions have been severely interrupted in the past by succession of ice ages.

(C) If it has a large amount of biomass, it also has a large number of different species.

(D) It has a larger regional pool of species than does an arctic grassland.

6. With which one of the following statements concerning possible explanations for the latitudinal gradient in number of species would the author be most likely to agree?

(A) The time theory is the least plausible of proposed hypotheses, since it does not correctly assess the impact of ice ages upon tropical conditions.

(B) The rate-of-speciation hypothesis addresses a principal objection to the climatic-stability hypothesis.

(C) The major objection to the time theory is that it does not accurately reflect the degree to which the latitudinal gradient exists, especially when undiscovered species are taken into account.

(D) Despite the claims of the species-energy hypothesis, a high rate of biological growth and reproduction is more likely to exist with low biomass than with high biomass.

https://youtu.be/mBTyYnB9Rt0

[theverbalmentor]

RC Practice - 17th June 2020

Species interdependence in nature confers many benefits on the species involved, but it can also become a point of weakness when one species involved in the relationship is affected by a catastrophe. Thus, flowering plant species dependent on insect pollination, as opposed to self-pollination or wind pollination, could be endangered when the population of insect-pollinators is depleted by the use of pesticides.

In the forests of New Brunswick, for example, various pesticides have been sprayed in the past 25 years in efforts to control the spruce budworm, an economically significant pest. Scientists have now investigated the effects of the spraying of Matacil, one of the anti-budworm agents that is least toxic to insect-pollinators. They studied Matacil’s effects on insect mortality in a wide variety of wild insect species and on plant fecundity, expressed as the percentage of the total flowers on an individual plant that actually developed fruit and bore seeds. They found that the most pronounced mortality after the spraying of Matacil occurred among the smaller bees and one family of flies, insects that were all important pollinators of numerous species of plants growing beneath the tree canopy of forests. The fecundity of plants in one common indigenous species, the red-osier dogwood, was significantly reduced in the sprayed areas as compared to that of plants in control plots where Matacil was not sprayed. This species is highly dependent on the insect-pollinators most vulnerable to Matacil. The creeping dogwood, a species similar to the red-osier dogwood, but which is pollinated by large bees, such as bumblebees, showed no significant decline in fecundity. Since large bees are not affected by the spraying of Matacil, these results add weight to the argument that spraying where the pollinators are sensitive to the pesticide used decreases plant fecundity.

The question of whether the decrease in plant fecundity caused by the spraying of pesticides actually causes a decline in the overall population of flowering plant species still remains unanswered. Plant species dependent solely on seeds for survival or dispersal are obviously more vulnerable to any decrease in plant fecundity that occurs, whatever its cause. If, on the other hand, vegetative growth and dispersal (by means of shoots or runners) are available as alternative reproductive strategies for a species, then decreases in plant fecundity may be of little consequence. The fecundity effects described here are likely to have the most profound impact on plant species with all four of the following characteristics: a short life span, a narrow geographic range, an incapacity for vegetative propagation, and a dependence on a small number of insect-pollinator species. Perhaps we should give special attention to the conservation of such plant species since they lack key factors in their defenses against the environmental disruption caused by pesticide use.

1. Which of the following best summarizes the main point of the passage?

(A) Species interdependence is a point of weakness for some plants, but is generally beneficial to insects involved in pollination.

(B) Efforts to control the spruce budworm have had deleterious effects on the red-osier dogwood.

(C) The used of pesticides may be endangering certain plant species dependent on insects for pollination.

(D) The spraying of pesticides can reduce the fecundity of a plant species, but probably does not affect its overall population stability.

2.According to the author, a flowering plant species whose fecundity has declined due to pesticide spraying may not experience an overall population decline if the plant species can do which of the following?

(A) Reproduce itself by means of shoots and runners.

(B) Survive to the end of the growing season.

(C) Survive in harsh climates.

(D) Respond to the fecundity decline by producing more flowers.

3.The passage suggests that the lack of an observed decline in the fecundity of the creeping dogwood strengthens the researchers conclusions regarding pesticide use because the

(A) creeping dogwood is a species that does not resemble other forest plants

(B) creeping dogwood is a species pollinated by a broader range of insect species than are most dogwood species

(C) creeping dogwood grows primarily in regions that were not sprayed with pesticide, and so served as a control for the experiment

(D) creeping dogwood is similar to the red-osier dogwood, but its insect pollinators are known to be insensitive to the pesticide used in the study

4.The passage suggests that which of the following is true of the forest regions in New Brunswick sprayed with most anti-budworm pesticides other than Matacil?

(A) The fecundity of some flowering plants in those regions may have decreased to an even greater degree than in the regions where Matacil is used.

(B) Insect mortality in those regions occurs mostly among the larger species of insects, such as bumblebees.

(C) The number of seeds produced by common plant species in those regions is probably comparable to the number produced where Matacil is sprayed.

(D) Many more plant species have become extinct in those regions than in the regions where Matacil is used.

5. It can be inferred that which of the following is true of plant fecundity as it is defined in the passage?

(A) A plant’s fecundity decreases as the percentage of unpollinated flowers on the plant increases.

(B) A plant’s fecundity decreases as the number of flowers produced by the plant decreases.

(C) A plant’s fecundity increases as the number of flowers produced by the plant increases.

(D) A plant’s fecundity is usually low if the plant relies on a small number of insect species for pollination.

https://youtu.be/mQfA6dkdEIo

[theverbalmentor]

RC Practice 18th June 2020

[missioncat2020]

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[theverbalmentor]

RC Practice - 19th June 2020  

Until recently, scientists did not know of a close vertebrate analogue to the extreme form of altruism observed in eusocial insects like ants and bees, whereby individuals cooperate, sometimes even sacrificing their own opportunities to survive and reproduce, for the good of others. However, such a vertebrate society may exist among underground colonies of the highly social rodent Heterocephalus glaber, the naked mole rat.

A naked mole rat colony, like a beehive, wasp’s nest, or termite mound, is ruled by its queen, or reproducing female. Other adult female mole rats neither ovulate nor breed. The queen is the largest member of the colony, and she maintains her breeding status through a mixture of behavioral and, presumably, chemical control. Queens have been long-lived in captivity, and when they die or are removed from a colony one sees violent fighting for breeding status among the larger remaining females, leading to a takeover by a new queen.

Eusocial insect societies have rigid caste systems, each insect’s role being defined by its behavior, body shape, and physiology. In naked mole rat societies, on the other hand, differences in behavior are related primarily to reproductive status (reproduction being limited to the queen and a few males), body size, and perhaps age. Smaller non-breeding members, both male and female, seem to participate primarily in gathering food, transporting nest material, and tunneling. Larger nonbreeders are active in defending the colony and perhaps in removing dirt from the tunnels. Jarvis’ work has suggested that differences in growth rates may influence the length of time that an individual performs a task, regardless of its age.

Cooperative breeding has evolved many times in vertebrates, but unlike naked mole rats, most cooperatively breeding vertebrates (except the wild dog, Lycaon pictus) are dominated by a pair of breeders rather than by a single breeding female. The division of labor within social groups is less pronounced among other vertebrates than among naked mole rats, colony size is much smaller, and mating by subordinate females may not be totally suppressed, whereas in naked mole rat colonies subordinate females are not sexually active, and many never breed.

1. Which of the following most accurately states the main idea of the passage?

(A) Naked mole rat colonies are the only known examples of cooperatively breeding vertebrate societies.

(B) Naked mole rat colonies exhibit social organization based on a rigid caste system.

(C) Behavior in naked mole rat colonies may well be a close vertebrate analogue to behavior in eusocial insect societies.

(D) The mating habits of naked mole rats differ from those of any other vertebrate species.

2. It can be inferred from the passage that the performance of tasks in naked mole rat colonies differs from task performance in eusocial insect societies in which of the following ways?

(A) In naked mole rat colonies, all tasks ate performed cooperatively.

(B) In naked mole rat colonies, the performance of tasks is less rigidly determined by body shape.

(C) In naked mole rat colonies, breeding is limited to the largest animals.

(D) In eusocial insect societies, reproduction is limited to a single female.

3.According to the passage, which of the following is a supposition rather than a fact concerning the queen in a naked mole rat colony?

(A) She is the largest member of the colony.

(B) She exerts chemical control over the colony.

(C) She mates with more than one male.

(D) She attains her status through aggression.

4.The passage supports which of the following inferences about breeding among Lycaon pictus?

(A) The largest female in the social group does not maintain reproductive status by means of behavioral control.

(B) An individual’s ability to breed is related primarily to its rate of growth.

(C) Breeding is the only task performed by the breeding female. 

(D) Breeding is not dominated by a single pair of dogs.

5.According to the passage, naked mole rat colonies may differ from all other known vertebrate groups in which of the following ways?

(A) Naked mole rats exhibit an extreme form of altruism.

(B) Naked mole rats are cooperative breeders.

(C) Among naked mole rats, many males are permitted to breed with a single dominant female.

(D) Among naked mole rats, different tasks are performed at different times in an individual’s life.

[missioncat2020]

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[steevieg (Steven Gerrard)]

Can someone please guide me as to how to attack the VA questions in mocks? What was your strategy? How did you prepare for the VA section?

I am able to manage the RC section, but my consistency in VA is horrible. Any tips/material to crack VA would be much appreciated.

[theverbalmentor]

#Parajumbles

(A) Experts such as Anan Mahinra, head of research at M&M, reckon that only such a full hearted leap will allow the world to cope with the mass motorization that will one day come to China or India.

(B) But once hydrogen is being produced form biomass or extracted form an underground coal or made from water, using nuclear or renewable electricity, the way will be open for a huge reduction in carbon emissions from the whole system.

(C) In theory, once all the bugs have been sorted out, fuel cells should deliver better total fuel economy than any existing engines.

(D) That is twice as good as the internal combustion engine, but only five percentage points better than a diesel hybrid.

(E) Allowing for the resources needed to extract hydrogen from hydrocarbon, oil, coal or gas, the fuel cell has an efficiency of 30%.

[steevieg (Steven Gerrard)]

#Parajumbles

1. To understand where these differences come from, we can start with an evolutionary story about sugary fruits and fatty animals, which were good food for our common ancestors.

2. It takes a lot of additional work to connect the universal taste receptors to the specific things that a particular person eats and drinks.

3. All humans have the same five taste receptors, but they don’t like the same foods.

4. Just knowing that everyone has sweetness receptors can’t tell you why one person prefers Thai food to Mexican, or why hardly anyone stirs sugar into beer.

5.  However, we will also have to examine the history of each culture, and we’ll have to look at the childhood eating habits of each individual too.

[rocker1216 (H M)]

 

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[theverbalmentor]

#Parajumbles

(A) The two neighbours never fought with each other.

(B) Fights involving three male fiddler crabs have been recorded, but the status of the participants was unknown.

(C) They pushed or grappled only with the intruder.

(D) We recorded 17 cases in which a resident that was fighting an intruder was joined by an immediate neighbour, an ally.

(E) We therefore tracked 268 intruder males until we saw them fighting a resident male.

[wind_walker]

#Para Jumble

1. How do we define imagination these days, and do we still associate it with fires? Unless it is escape or delusion, it seems to have little relevance, for good or ill, to the needs of the organism.
2. We know these people. In fact we are these people, proudly sufficient to expectations, our own and others’, and not much inclined to wonder whether these expectations are not rather low. 
3. For those to whom Emerson is speaking, who have made a good account of themselves as students at Harvard, deprivation is the effect of an unconscious surrender, a failure to aspire, to find in oneself the grandeur that could make the world new.
4. We have, of course, accustomed ourselves to a new anthropology, which is far too sere to accommodate anything like grandeur, and which barely acknowledges wit, in the nineteenth-century or the modern sense. 
5. Eloquence might be obfuscation, since the main project of the self is now taken by many specialists in the field to be the concealment of selfish motives.